BUFFALO – No one would reveal any details of the meeting.
But on Monday, less than a day after an illegal hit knocked Tage Thompson out of their 4-3 win, the Sabres canceled practice and instead discussed why they did not go after Stefan Noesen following his suspension-worthy check to their leading scorer’s head.
“It was dealt with yesterday. Everything,” Sabres winger Alex Tuch said prior to Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets in KeyBank Center. “Now we’re going to move on and focus on the positives of having three wins in a row.”
Was coach Lindy Ruff present? What about general manager Kevyn Adams? No one would say.
“We had some hard conversations,” Ruff said. “It’s over. What we discussed will stay inside the room and we’re moving on to try to win tonight.”
Ruff said Thompson, who missed Tuesday’s game, is day to day. A combative Ruff said following Sunday’s 4-3 win over the New Jersey Devils the winger had passed his tests and was “good.”
Thompson left the game 5:11 into the third period after Noesen, an aggressive winger who was wreaking havoc all afternoon, leveled him inside the New Jersey blue line.
As a dazed-looking Thompson knelt on the ice, none of his teammates made Noesen pay – some said following the game they did not see the play – before officials gave him a match penalty and ejected him.
“I think there’s a lot of guys that wish they were on the ice when that happened,” Sabres center Dylan Cozens said. “But we talked about it, we dealt with it and that won’t happen again.”
Tuch said “it’s tough to see one of my brothers lying on the ice.”
“You have a lot of emotions,” he said. “You just got to learn. I’ve been through similar situations, I guess, in my career, and you just got to learn to try to deal with it as best you can because we do have a job to win a game.”
“Obviously, the guy that hit him was thrown out of the game, so that kind of took him out of the equation, and our main focus was to win a game.”
But the Sabres’ response, or lack of one, has overshadowed that win. They entered Tuesday aiming for their first four-game winning streak since rattling off five consecutive victories from Jan. 19 to 26, 2023.
Very few people are talking about that.
Tuch said opponents must know they will pay a price if they mess with the Sabres.
“They will,” he said. “They’re going to understand that you can’t take liberties on our guys. What happened last game won’t happen again.”
If the Sabres had sent a message following some of Noesen’s earlier hits – he cross-checked winger Jason Zucker after he scored in the second period – perhaps he wouldn’t have gone after Thompson.
“When you’re up by a couple goals, it’s hard to go out,” Tuch said. “You don’t want to go out and do anything stupid to hurt your team, too. And, I mean, you also don’t want to get suspended by targeting a guy. He plays hard. I didn’t like the hit, obviously. …
“But we probably could’ve maybe been more apparent towards him and made sure he knows like, ‘Hey, don’t do anything stupid.’ But that’s on us.”
In other instances this season, the Sabres have responded to suspect hits. Tuch fought New Jersey’s Brenden Dillon on Oct. 5 when he laid out winger JJ Peterka and defenseman Dennis Gilbert fought Ottawa Senators pest Brady Tkachuk on Jan. 9 after he hit Zucker into the boards.
While Thompson will miss at least one game, Noesen will not be suspended.
“I am surprised,” Ruff said. “I think that’s what they want to try to get out of the game. I think you look at the NFL and protecting players, I don’t think that was an accidental play.”
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Ruff said defenseman Mattias Samuelsson, one of the Sabres on the ice when Thompson went down, missed Tuesday’s game with a lower-body injury. Ruff had no other information on the injury.
Later in the day, the Sabres recalled goalie Felix Sandstrom from the Rochester Americans because No. 1 netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen missed the game with an undisclosed ailment.
To create a roster spot, the Sabres placed Samuelsson on injured reserve.
Defenseman Connor Clifton replaced Samuelsson in the lineup.
The Sabres dressed seven defensemen again, using Gilbert as an extra. Gilbert fought Blue Jackets winger Mathieu Olivier three seconds into the game.
Meanwhile, rookie winger Isak Rosen, who was recalled Monday, skated in Thompson’s spot at right wing alongside Peterka and center Jiri Kulich.
Rosen, whose 23 goals lead Rochester and rank second in the league, left the AHL All-Star Classic in Coachella Valley to join the Sabres.
After a long travel day to California, the Swede participated in Sunday’s skills challenge. On Monday morning, hours before the game, Amerks coach Mike Leone informed him of the recall.
Rosen has been perhaps the AHL’s hottest player, scoring seven goals and eight points in his last four games and nine goals and 11 points in the last seven contests. He has four two-goal outings during that stretch.
“I think just (playing) more direct to the net, shooting more and kind of just trusting my shot, too, even more,” Rosen said of his torrid stretch.
Rosen replaced rookie center Tyson Kozak on the roster.
Ruff said Kozak recently lost seven pounds as he battled the flu. The Sabres hope the youngster, who skated on his own Tuesday morning, will be ready to play this weekend.
Please buy-out Matthias. He is just terrible and thankfully, rarely available.
Not sure what to make of Samuelsson. I thought he had more grit in him. He needs to reinvent himself, as he isn’t really part of core group any more.
To bad we dont still have pat kaleta he would of takin care of that.player an sent a message
Kevin you need to trade M Samuelson the hawks could use him, and get a draft pick and Taylor hall as they want to get rid of him. BTW I’ve been a Sabres fan from they’re very beginning in THE NHL and I’m a Montreal native. How’s that for a Dye Hsrd Sabres fan.